SoCal July 2017 | FindPenguins

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Trip start
July 1, 2017
SoCal July 2017 Kristen Metzger
Alpine Beer Company
July 1, 2017 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 75 °F
We stop here whenever we drive to San Diego. The beer is really good, and there are a lot that you can only get here in their taproom. They're good at IPAs and pale ales. Also, they have a nice outdoor patio area.Read more
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SoCal July 2017 Kristen Metzger
Quality Inn Miramar
July 1, 2017 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 72 °F
We booked through hotels.com, mainly for proximity to breweries. It's a fine middle-of-the-road hotel. Shares a parking lot with a Carls Jr, which automatically makes it seem sketchy, but the rooms are clean and we've got a fridge and microwave, which kind of makes things seem fancy.Read more
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SoCal July 2017 Kristen Metzger
Protector Brewing
July 1, 2017 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 70 °F
Wow. This brewery has only been open three weeks, but they already have some of the best beer we've tasted in San Diego...and that's saying quite a lot. I found this place on Yelp; it only has 16 reviews so far, but every one of them was a full 5 stars. It's a nice taproom, pretty typical except for the super-shiny floors. Everything is currently spotless. They have some gimmick about all their ingredients being 100% organic, which whatever. More important, they have a DIPA to die for, and really strong contenders in quite a few beer families. See Untapped for details--actually see Tim's Untapped--he's much more meticulous than I am.Read more
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SoCal July 2017 Kristen Metzger
Align Brewing
July 1, 2017 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 66 °F
These poor people have to be two doors down from Protector. Taylor, one of the owners, is a character; he was fun to interact with. The beers are fine, even pretty good, but they don't hold a candle to their neighbor's.Read more
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SoCal July 2017 Kristen Metzger
Deli Sushi and Desserts
July 1, 2017 in the United States ⋅ ⛅ 64 °F
Poke bowl FTW. I haven't had one of these since the last time I was in Hawaii--I would eat them every meal if I could. This place was pretty weird, they only took cash and the clientele was...I don't know...just weird, but as the only place to eat amidst several breweries, they were a welcome find. Food was fresh and good.Read more
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SoCal July 2017 Kristen Metzger
Union Market
July 2, 2017 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 79 °F
I'm reasonably certain I wrote about this strange, indoor collection of shops and restaurants in the Irvine District last time we were here. It's still strange, but there's some good food to be had. We visited a fresh salad place for lunch, and had milkshakes at one of the fancy creameries. The whole place is a weird collision of suburban mall and hipster market vibes.Read more
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SoCal July 2017 Kristen Metzger
Embassy Suites Hotel
July 2, 2017 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 79 °F
I've stayed here a few times over the years with mixed results. The rooms are really nice, and really comfortable. The clientele usually includes a pile of sports tournament kids, which can go either way depending on where they're situated...and where you are. Here's something though; you didn't used to have to pay for parking, and now it's $18 per night. I think this is the last time I'll be staying here.Read more
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SoCal July 2017 Kristen Metzger
Newport Pier
July 3, 2017 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 75 °F
We scored an absolutely perfect weather day, and also a primo parking space near the marina across from Newport Beach. It was busy for a Monday, but a lot of people have the day off since tomorrow is July 4. We took walk to the end of the pier, watched the surfers and fisherpeople. The ocean is clear and aquamarine today. We also walked along the bike path--a bit crowded, but fun to peoplewatch and peek into the houses along the beach. Who lives here?Read more
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SoCal July 2017 Kristen Metzger
Balboa Peninsula
July 3, 2017 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 79 °F
The marina side of the peninsula is arguably cooler than the ocean side. Families with little kids flock here, but in general they are more fun to hang out with than the douche-y beach people. WE MUST BRING OUR PADDLEBOARDS BACK HERE. You can launch right off the beach here, and if you can get a parking place along this stretch like we did, it would be easy as pie. Parking is also reasonable; you download an app to pay.Read more
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SoCal July 2017 Kristen Metzger
Karl Strauss Brewing
July 3, 2017 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 82 °F
Yelp led us here when we were ready to leave the chaos of the coastline behind. Not disappointed! This location is right next to Angel Stadium, so on a game day it would be bedlam. But on a Monday at noon? Perfect. We sat out on the patio because again, the day was gorgeous. We had some beers we've never had before, a couple we had, and they were delicious. See Untapped for more details on that. Apparently KS doesn't distribute outside of CA, so we must have tried them in the SD airport when we were stuck there en route to wherever we were going last year.Read more
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SoCal July 2017 Kristen Metzger
Stereo Brewing
July 3, 2017 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 88 °F
Someone Tim knows recommended this place. The space isn't really anything special--I'd give them a 6/10 for theming. But the beer, a different story. We got a flight here so we could sample everything they had on tap, and I don't think there was a single one that wasn't excellent. Some families of beer are not my thing, but their representatives of those families were actually really good. I'm thinking of a ginger wheat beer that was particularly tasty. See Untapped for details.Read more
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SoCal July 2017 Kristen Metzger
Bottle Logic Brewing
July 3, 2017 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 86 °F
We had a great experience here last time we came--this time the flight was kind of hit and miss. Really good milk stout and IPA, some other mediocre stuff.Oh well, it's not like we won't try again. They were really busy tonight!Read more
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SoCal July 2017 Kristen Metzger
Poke Express
July 3, 2017 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 82 °F
Poke bowls are my new favorite thing. So easy to find in SoCal--not like AZ at all! I Yelped this place from our hotel near The Bruery, and it was a huge win. Quick, easy, and so good. We got lucky and
were the only ones there when we went, but our food was ready almost instantly. I loved filling out a form instead of trying to work through a bunch of choices verbally. All the ingredients were fresh and awesome. I plan on coming here every time we do this trip.Read more
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SoCal July 2017 Kristen Metzger
The Bruery
July 3, 2017 in the United States ⋅ ☀️ 77 °F
I forget sometimes when it's been a while, but The Bruery is really head and shoulders above anyplace else. They have a new venture, Offshoot Brewing, that specializes in IPAs. We tried three and they were all excellent. The big winner of the night was a Frucht Cucumber (not an IPA, this is from the regular Bruery facility). How I do love cucumber drinkies.Read more
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SoCal July 2017 Kristen Metzger
Quality Inn
July 3, 2017 in the United States ⋅ 🌙 72 °F
We have stayed here several times now, and it's kind of nice to know exactly what you're getting. It's fine. The check-in staff was particularly helpful this trip--they got us a 1st floor room so we could easily lug all our beer inside for the night. Ha!Read more
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Trip end
July 4, 2017